Heretofore, converting of corrugated boards or blanks into boxes, containers or other three-dimensional forms relied upon a design-conform paradigm wherein the locations of folds, creases, edges and corners for the converted blank were determined without consideration as to the effect on the corrugated board material (as persons skilled in the art well know, dimensional attributes such as caliper were necessarily taken into account). Thus, a container, for example, was designed in the abstract, e.g., corrugated board size, caliper, stiffness, etc., and a conforming blank was subjected to the converting process without consideration as to the effect that the converting process would have on the corrugated board. As a result, scores, slits and slots would be formed in the blank without meaningful concern over the consequences thereof. While such oversight has little consequences for a homogeneous material, the resulting folds, creases, corners or edges would often cause compromised outer liner integrity and/or crushed inner liner and fluted mediums in the converted article. This consequence not only decreased structural performance of the article, but significantly reduced the number of reuse cycles. Moreover, because the scores, for example, did not evenly affect the corrugated board, the folds, creases, corners or edges were often uneven, which resulted in unintended flap gaps, fishtails and the like, not to mention overall visual discord.
Conventional wisdom dictated that compromised outer liner integrity issues could be resolved by increasing the basis weight of the liner, modifying the geometry of the score, or adding localized reinforcements. However, increasing material strength not only increased costs associated with the blanks and increased transportation costs, but also increased inner liner and/or fluted medium negative outcomes. The converse was also true: minimizing issues with inner liner and/or fluted medium crushing and the like would have at best limited negative effect to the outer liner issues.